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Connecting People Globally Through Conference Calls

The Internet is changing the way people work. No longer confined to office desks, an increasing number of people are working from their homes or from the road.

As organizations become more global, the popularity of telecommuting rises as does the need for a communications technology solution designed to link geographically dispersed employees. While the Internet is a powerful tool, it doesn’t replace the need for people to collaborate with one another, according to Linkroll blog writer Mike Selvon.

But service providers such as Eagle Conferencing are offering a solution with conference call technology. Today, companies like Eagle Conferencing are helping organizations stay connected no matter where employees are located.

“No matter where people are in the world, as long as they have telephone access, either through a land line, a cellular phone connection, or a Voice over Internet Protocol phone, they can participate in conference calls,” Mike Selvon wrote in a blog post. “While it used to be that a teleconference call was difficult and expensive to participate in if you lived across the country, or in a different country, conferencing has changed.”

“Nowadays, there are quite a few options in long distance phone plans that are flat rated,” Selvon wrote. “Many of these not only provide phone coverage for the U.S., but also throughout Canada for no additional cost. This means that there are more people who can take advantage of conference call sessions and not have to worry about long distance costs.”

One thing helping drive the adoption of conference calls is the fact that international calling rates have dropped, thanks to the growth of VoIP telephone service providers, such as Vonage (News - Alert), Selvon said. Vonage and other companies have brought the cost of long distance rates to a few cents a minute from just about any country. This makes it easy to join in international conference calls, Selvon said.

While audio teleconferencing used to be the sole option people had for conference call meetings, days companies have additional options, including video teleconferencing and web conferencing.

Global teleconferencing solutions from Eagle Conferencing help companies promote teamwork and the feeling of close collaboration, even though users may not be in the same room. With the company’s audio teleconferencing, video teleconferencing, or Web teleconferencing services, users can meet clients and customers from across the globe, without leaving their office.

Executives no longer have to spend thousands of dollars on a travel budget or travel thousands of miles to attend a meeting. Instead, users can save time and money by conducting conference call meetings. With Eagle Conferencing’s worldwide network connection infrastructure, its capacity of more than 10 billion minutes and a variety of conference call options, the company’s solutions make it easy and cost-effective to collaborate with co-workers, partners and customers anytime and anywhere – where online or offline - around the world.

Amy Tierney is a Web editor for TMCnet, covering business communications Her areas of focus include conferencing, SIP, Fax over IP, unified communications and telepresence. Amy also writes about education and healthcare technology, overseeing production of e-Newsletters on those topics as well as communications solutions and UC. To read more of Amy's articles, please visit her columnist page.